IBC 2015: Stop, collaborate and listen!

It’s not terribly rock and roll but the most surprising – and welcome – thing that I saw at IBC 2015 was the willingness of manufacturers to finally co-operate with each other.

Yes, yes, I know it’s not a fancy new widget, a drone or an amazing new camera. We all love a tangible new innovation – especially if it has shiny buttons, can fly or features a whizzy demo mode.

But, while all those things are great in isolation, the manufacturing community coming together as one for the greater good is far more important.

Broadcasters, production companies and facilities houses the world over have been imploring vendors to make their systems work together and talk to each other for many years. It’s been slow in coming but 2015 may just be the tipping point.

You could not move around the RAI without someone mentioning collaboration and integration. Almost every stand featured a ‘partner’ company logo. Unlike the bad old days, no one was locking anyone into their technology anymore. The talk was about openness and partnerships. Even with competitors. It was incredibly refreshing, and not just for me.

As we continue to move to a more open, IT-centric and cost-effective way of creating and delivering content (in a myriad of different ways to a plethora of different platforms), these third-party integrations – without the need for significant customer R&D – are essential.

And if customers are shouting for it, vendors must listen. Finally, it appears that they are.